Sophia Serrao
Tue, 08/22/2023
On August 11, 2023, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit overturned a lower court’s decision that St. Luke’s Health System, Inc.’s time rounding policy followed the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). The Eighth Circuit ruled that a health care system, like a hospital, cannot prevail on claims that a compensable time- rounding system was following the Fair Labor Standards Act when the workers are underpaid overall.
The 3-judge panel analyzed a time-rounding policy under which the hospital system either rounds workers’ reported time up or down to match their scheduled time. The lower court ruled in favor of the hospital, determining that because some workers’ time was rounded up (and their pay was also rounded up), the workers were not losing pay and the policy was fair and legal. The Eighth Circuit disagreed and overturned the summary judgment decision. The panel looked specifically at the actual time and pay data provided by the hospital, which showed that not only were most employees underpaid over the long run within the rounding policy, but that they could have been paid for all time worked. Therefore, the appellate court concluded that the rounding policy did not average out in the long run, and workers were underpaid in the aggregate.
The Court noted that rounding is allowed under the FLSA, but that permission is conditioned on the basis that the rounding cannot and will not result in systemic or routine underpayment for work performed.
If your time is rounded at work and you suspect you have been underpaid, contact MSE at info@mselaborlaw.com.
